Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and South Korean President Park Geun-hye oversaw the signing of an agreement on naval transport and two memoranda of understanding on nuclear cooperation here on Tuesday.

India’s top diplomat pledged to improve relations with Pakistan on Tuesday after the first meeting with his counterpart since India called off talks aimed at easing the rivals’ many disputes last year.

A very great deal rests on the Iraqi government’s drive to retake Tikrit. The already deeply-discredited former premier Nouri Al-Maliki undermined his standing yet further by twice claiming, entirely falsely, that the so-called Islamic State had been driven out of the city.